Maa Narmadeiii Har!

Dear Gopal, Arti, and Ojasvi,

Maa Narmadeiii Har!

It was such a joy to have come together last Sunday, in the spirit of devotion to the great mother, the spirit of surrender and to quote Ojasvi, 'acceptance.'

There is this norm in Hindu yagyas that if you touch your hand to the host who is performing the pooja, then you get the merits of perming the pooja yourself. We could not undertake the yatra, but simply by listening to the stories of the yatra, it felt like we are making contact with your pilgrim spirit and feeling joy through mere induction. Thank you for allowing us a glimpse of the magic. For sharing your merits. It indeed felt like darshan.

The stories of Gopal bhai humbly asking for "kal ki roti hai kya?" to Arti's story of Tulsi tea that "mother knows what the child wants" to the super hit story of Ojasvi's acceptance of whatever was offered during the yatra will stay with me. Before the yatra, the way you won the acceptance of your extended family (your parents) as described by Arti, how first Gopal's and later Arti's intention to walk transpired into a pilgrimage for the entire family and how Gopal changed the course of his career just to make this yatra happen -- all point to the message that the process is so much more significant as the outcome.

As Gopal bhai noticed, and Kinnari told me later too, I could also see Trupti's eyes moisten a couple times during the Talk. Given that your intention of walking the pilgrimage was deeply intertwined with Trupti and Swara's yatra, it was just so apt that Trupti was conversing yatra stories with the three of you. As a moderator, through her questions Trupti brought out so many nuances of humility, generosity, vulnerability, gratitude and the gradual unfolding of the yatra magic that a pilgrim witnesses. The line of separation between the moderator and the speakers kind of dissolved - in the flow of the mother river.

Should I thank all four of you to have accepted the invite whole heartedly? Or should I thank my stars that I got the fortune of being a part of this :) In any case, as we so very much know, words just are not enough for all the love you brought to the call, to each other and to the world.

So many people got a chance of immersion - from Arti, Drishti, Ashima jee, Nisha ma, who weaved magic with the bios and event page (bilingual!), the event posters made by Zeal, Swara blessed this by being on the prep calls, the copius notes-taking by Trupti - the amount of home work that went into the seamless flow (by Trupti as moderator) that we witnessed on the Talks, I can vouch for. The ever present Rohit chipped in almost everywhere - from the Hindi magic, event page layout, as well as the Intro slides and in every single inch/second of the Talks. N2b was the able tech sarathi behind the scenes. The nuggets and blog en route to be published are a gift from Aparajita, Vineet and his mother. I am sure I missed out on many others who invisibly offered their talents and prayers alike for this Talk to materialize the way it did.

The benefit of this Talk will be enjoyed by many others - I am a follower of the Narmada Parikrama on the internet. I can say that such deep conversations on the yatra, by "ordinary" "city-dwelling" "people-like-us" are very rare. I personally have not found any.

Among those who tuned it, there was so deep interest from all over the spectrum - Kanti-bhai has blessed you with his comments, Vineet's mother asked him if Vineet would like to walk the yatra with her some time soon, my father himself was glued to the entire call. There is so much of interest from the younger lot too for walking the yatra -- and they would like to be in touch with you by email. As you have seen already, the comments on the live chat, the feedback forms, the emails, blog and more show the beautiful ripples in so many directions. Kavita-Aunty was so much in the Narmada mood that she was seeing maiyya everywhere - even in the bhujias on her plate. See the attached pic. :) She says "The morning Maa Narmada talk has been going on in my mind - just noticed this pattern of bhujiyas on my lunch plate."



Feeling grateful,

On behalf of the volunteers!

P.S. A small sampling of responses ...

"Such a powerful session. It seems time has stopped :)"

"आप सभी को बहुत बहुत सलाम !! बेहद प्रेरक ऑर सराहनीय | मेरा एक प्रश्न है - आप लोगों को क्या लगता है कि नदियां का स्वच्छ ऑर स्वतंत्र होना हमारे वातावरण के लिए कितना आवश्यक है ? ऑर इसके प्रति लोग कितने जागरूक है ? ऑर हम इसके लिए क्या कर सकते है"

"Could feel their antar-yatra from their smiling faces ... Little Ojaswi won my heart over with her answer on acceptance. Wonderful karmic connection within the family. Superb sanchaalan by Trupti"

Sister Lucy : "It was wonderful to listen to the Narmada pilgrims.Ojasvi, Gopal and Arti were so great"

"Narmade Har !! Watched the entire talks with a brimming heart and tears in the eyes. A different type of ....' slowdown'...explained by Gopal ...Wow !!"

"Excellent call. It was 1 pm in Australia but we were sitting with our entire family watching this entire call."

"It was very inspiring. To the point. Natural. Spiritual. Honest. I am going for Parikrama for sure! Can we get any contact detail of Garg family?"

"यात्रा की तैयारी और अनुभव सुने बहुत आनंद आया और मुजे भी यात्राके लीये प्रेरणा मीली l आपके साहास को सराहने के लीये मेरे पास शब्द नहीं है l ये साहस पूर्ण करने इश्वर पर आत्मविश्वास होना जरूरी है जो आपकी बात से मेंने भी अनुभव कीया"